CfACTs Research Fellow - Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics (Fixed-Term, Multiple Positions Available)

Bournemouth University’s vision is worldwide recognition as a leading university for inspiring learning, advancing knowledge and enriching society through the fusion of education, research and practice. Our highly skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the globe, who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives and experiences that help to build our global learning community.

The Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University is one of the largest of its kind in the world and has a global reputation for combining research excellence and teaching practice.  The research fellow will join the Faculty’s Centre for Applied Creative Technologies (CfACTs), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND research training centre that provides international mobility and cross-sectoral experience through a well-aligned research and training programme.

The CfACTs project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 900025.

The academic expertise underpinning CfACTs is sourced from BU’s world-class National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) and as required, other BU centres of research excellence, including: Centre for Games and Music Research; the Orthopaedic Research Institute; the Centre for Archaeology and Anthropology, and the Institute of Medical Imaging and Visualisation.

CfACTs is seeking to recruit three research fellows to form the second CfACTs cohort. The CfACTs fellowships follow the specification and requirement of the Standard fellowships of the MSCA; available in full from:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/guides_for_applicants/h2020-guide-appl-msca-if-2018-20_en.pdf

To be eligible to apply an applicant must meet the requirements outlined and:

• Be in possession of a doctorate or have at least four years full-time equivalent research experience.

• Not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the United Kingdom for more than 12 months in the three years immediately before the call deadline.

The research fellow will be an employee of BU and embark on a two-year programme of world leading digital creative technology research and training, provided by CfACTs and its industry Partner Organisations (POs); including SIE- Playstation and Framestore.  See https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/centres-institutes/centre-applied-creative-technologies for specific research themes provided by CfACTs POs. The fellow will have an opportunity to be seconded into one or more CfACTs POs for the majority of their two-year programme, with full academic support, to gain cross-sectoral experience.

The fellow will research and develop new applied digital creative techniques, collaboratively with industry POs; and apply them in sectors including but not limited to, computer animation, visual effects (VFX), computer vision, visualisation, healthcare, retail and assistive technology. These new techniques will also bring important productivity improvements to many industries.

CfACTs supports open research on a broad range of topics on applied creative technologies incorporating but not limited to:

• Computer animation and immersive technology;

• Artificial Intelligence (AI);

• Medical simulation / visualisation;

• Assistive technologies;

• Emotional computing;

• Robotics;

• 3D printing;

• Human Computer Interaction (HCI);

• 5G and others.

An applicant must provide a full research proposal to outline their research project (ideally in line with an available PO research topics) and other requested material.  Additional support is available to discuss your research proposal by contacting [email protected]. Projects proposing fundamental or applied research are eligible, and inter- and/or multi-disciplinary proposals are strongly encouraged.  Please see the BU‑CfACTs webpage for guidance for applicants and specific PO research topics: www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cfacts-research

As a part of the application all applicants are required to submit the following:

• BU Application form and the Equality Monitoring form

• Research Proposal (max.10 pages)

• CV (max.5 pages)

• Ethics issues - Applicants must provide information on how they intend to address potential ethics issues, as required by the Horizon 2020 Guidance on Ethics Self-Assessment

• Signed support letters from the applicants PhD academic supervisors (optional)

There are three positions available on a two-year fixed term basis.

For an informal discussion, please contact: Prof Jian Chang, CfACTs Project Coordinator,  [email protected] quoting FMC303 in the subject line.

BU values and is committed to an inclusive working environment.  We seek a diverse community through attracting, developing and retaining staff from different backgrounds to contribute to inspirational learning, advancing knowledge and enriching society.  To support and enable our staff to achieve a balance between work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.